‘If our GP hadn’t had access to Consultant Connect, I think I’d feel really frustrated because we most likely would still have been in the same position: going backwards and forwards, trialling treatments until we received a hospital appointment. I don’t think we would’ve received the appointment as quickly as we did had the dermatologist not been able to see how bad her skin condition was.’ Find out more.

‘If I hadn’t been able to contact the midwife for delivery support via Consultant Connect, we would’ve been looking at a very different outcome. Ultimately, the scenario was extremely difficult and emotional, but we certainly saved two lives that day.’ Find out more.

‘The similarities between advice from a local consultant and an out-of-area consultant are greater than the differences! What Primary Care clinicians will receive is a sense of how urgent the problem is, and it’s usually a lot less urgent than they initially thought. We provide them with reassurance and advice that will often allow them to manage the patient in a Primary Care setting without needing to refer them to Secondary Care.’ Find out more.

‘I sent a message to a consultant in palliative care on the NCN outlining my plan and asked if, based on their experience, there was anything they would change. The consultant agreed with my approach, which enabled me to initiate the patient’s treatment the same day, and he avoided a hospital referral.’ Find out more.

‘I use Consultant Connect all the time, especially at night; because we’re lone workers, it’s a valuable link to access another level of decision-making. It’s great that we can contact our emergency medicine colleagues in this way to support our decisions and access patient notes. As mobile clinicians, we don’t have access to the full platform of portals to read patient notes, so this service is vital, especially if the patient has a cognitive impairment or is a poor historian. It’s like having the specialist sat next to you, and they have access to other information you might not.’ Find out more.

‘I used Consultant Connect to call the radiologist and got straight through. He reviewed the X-ray and said it was definitely cancer metastases, and the patient did not require an MRI scan. Instead, he advised I investigate the cancer’s primary and then refer to that specialty. The benefit was that we didn’t waste any time getting an urgent MRI scan, and I got the patient back into the surgery that same day. I took his bloods, we identified the following day that prostate cancer was the source, and I referred him urgently to urology.’ Find out more.

‘I would have had to admit the patient if I hadn’t had access to the Acute Frailty line via Consultant Connect. As a result, this allowed the patient to stay home and avoid an unnecessary admission, improving her care journey.’ Find out more.

‘Recently, I visited a patient who was really unwell from the side effects of cancer treatment, but because they were immunocompromised, we didn’t want to transfer them to hospital. I used the Bypass Numbers feature on the Consultant Connect App to speak with their GP, who knew the patient’s history well, and arranged for them to conduct a home visit the same day. This meant the patient could stay at home, avoiding a likely very busy A&E department with long waiting times where they would be susceptible to infection.’ Find out more.

‘I recently received a call from a patient’s mum who stated that the patient was expressing suicidal thoughts, which had happened previously. Their mum was really worried, and the call came through towards the end of the day, so I needed rapid advice. I called the MHAU line via Consultant Connect and discussed the patient with the specialist, and we quickly devised a patient management plan. The specialist advised me on actions to take in the interim as well as a follow-up plan for later down the line. As a result of this call, I was able to give the patient and their mum a definitive plan which they were happy with, and the prompt response put them at ease.’ Find out more.